healthy, cheap food that makes you yum!

My breakfast burrito making experience

Today I decided to give it a go. I bought some large flour tortillas, make locally, stretchy and full of gluten.. which generally I am trying to avoid these days, but for burritos, its so great because the tortillas can take some abuse as you roll.

I used a dozen eggs and mixed in 1 can of green chiles and 3 tbs. of salsa, along with some low sodium salt and pepper and almond milk. I cant wait for green chile season to start in a few weeks so I can use fresh ones!

I used a cast iron griddle pan, and alternated cooking a few slices of bacon between each ingredient, to keep it oiled.

I also added potatoes and onions, and used cheddar cheese.

One of my biggest peeves with frozen burritos is that the ends of the tortillas get super hard and stale when you heat them in the microwave. In an attempt to combat this problem, I used about 1 tsp. of avocado per burrito to massage in to the edges of the tortilla before filling it. I am thinking the fat and moisture of the avocado may help with this issue. We will see how it turns out.

Each burrito contains approximately:

-1.5 eggs

– 1 slice bacon

– 1/5 cup potatoes

– 2 tbs onion

– 2 tsp. green chiles

– 1 tsp avocado

– 1 tbs. cheddar cheese

– 1 flour tortilla

Comes out to about $1.00 – $1.25 per burrito. Plus 1.5 hours of labor. Which in retrospect seems a little meh.. Considering I can get a 260 calorie jr. burrito at sonic already made for $1.06.

However, these burritos are easily 2x the size of the sonic jr. burritos. Comparably, these are more equivalent to the larger sonic burritos which are around $3.00 each. Frozen, locally made breakfast burritos which are comparable in size and ingredients I can get in a 6-pack for around $8, which comes out to about $1.33 each.

Calorie/Nutritional content is roughly:

480 calories

29g fat

4g fiber

35g carbs

950mg sodium

21g protein

This could be reduced and made healthier by: using turkey bacon, vegetarian “sausage”, or no meat, using carb-reduced tortillas, leaving out the potatoes, and adding more veggies – bell peppers, spinach, etc.

I wrapped each burrito individually in wax paper (I just learned that it is microwavable!), and then put 4-5 burritos into a freezer bag and stuck them in the freezer.

They should take 2-3 minutes in the microwave to reheat.

Worth the time and effort? Maybe. Can customize the ingredients, and save about $.10 – .50 cents per burrito, at the cost of about 2 hours time for prep, cooking, rolling, and cleanup. At this rate, my labor in making these comes out to be worth about $3.00-5.00 per hour. If money is really tight, go for it, but if you are really busy and would rather spend a few extra bucks a week for pre-made burritos than a few hours making them.